r 


ND 

553 

B29C85E 


5TIEN  LEPAGE 


MASTERPIECES 

IN  COLOVR 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UXIWRSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 
FREDERIC  THO^L\S  BLANCH.\RD 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

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MASTERPIECES 
IN     COLOUR 

EDITED    BY     -     - 
M.  HENRY    ROUJON 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

(1848-1884) 


IN  THE  SAME  SERIES 


REYNOLDS 

VELASQUEZ 

GREUZE 

TURNER 

BOTTICELLI 

ROMNEY 

REMBRANDT 

BELLINI 

FRA  ANGELICO 

ROSSETTI 

RAPHAEL 

LEIGHTON 

HOLMAN  HUNT 

TITIAN 

MILLAIS 

LUINI 

FRANZ  HALS 

CARLO  DOLCI 

GAINSBOROUGH 

TINTORETTO 

VAN  DYCK 

DA  VINCI 

WHISTLER 

RUBENS 

BOUCHER 

HOLBEIN 

BURNE-JONES 

LE  BRUN 


CHARDIN 

MILLET 

RAEBURN 

SARGENT 

CONSTABLE 

MEMLING 

FRAGONARD 

DURER 

LAWRENCE 

HOGARTH 

■WATTEAU 

MURILLO 

■WATTS 

INGRES 

COROT 

DELACROIX 

FRA  LIPPO  LIPPI 

PUVIS  DE  CHAVANNES 

MEISSONIER 

GEROME 

VERONESE 

VAN  EYCK 

FROMENTIN 

MANTEGNA 

PERUGINO 

ROSA   BONHEUR 

BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

GOYA 


PLATE  I.  — THE  SONG  OF  SPRINGTIME 

(  Museum  at  Verdun ) 

This  is  one  of  the  artist's  earliest  works.  A  certain  embarrassment 
may  be  noted  in  the  manner  in  which  the  Cupids  are  treated  ;  even 
at  this  period,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  allegory  is  not  suited  to  the  pre- 
cise and  realistic  talent  of  this  painter;  yet  the  young  girl  is 
designed  with  a  vigour  which  already  foreshadows  the  masterly  art 
of  Hay-making. 


BasttenLq>age 

BY    FR.    CRASTRE 


TRANSLATED     FROM    THE    FRENCH 
BY     FREDERIC     TABER     COOPER 

ILLUSTRATED      WITH       EIGHT 
REPRODUCTIONS     IN     COLOUR 


FREDERICK    A.    STOKES    COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  —  PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,    1914,    BY 
FREDERICK    A.    STOKES     COMPANY 


t 


March,  1914 


THE'PLIMPTON- PRESS 
NORWOOD-MASS-U-S'A 


/YD 

553 


CONTENTS 

Page 

His  Youth .         .       i6 

His  Best  Years .         .       31 

His  Premature  End 65 


f^SSOS^ 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Plate 

I.      The  Song  of  Springtime       .  .  .  Frontispiece 

Museum  at  Verdun 
II.     Portrait  of  M.  Wallon 14 

Museum  of  the  Louvre 

III.  The  Artist's  Mother 24 

Collection  of  E.  Bastien-Lepage 

IV.  The  Hay-making 34 

Museum  of  the  Luxembourg 

V.     Portrait  of  M.  Hay  em 40 

Museum  of  the  Luxembourg 

VI.     Portrait  of  M.  X 50 

Museum  at  Verdun 

VII.     The  Little  Boatman 60 

Collection  of  E.  Bastien-Lepage 

VIII.     The  Artist's  Uncle 7° 

Museum  at  Verdun 


'T^HERE  are  certain  beings  who  bear  the  stamp 
of  the  divine  seal  and  are  preordained  to 
receive  the  highest  favours  within  the  gift  of  glory; 
they  are  fated  to  pass  through  life  like  those  bril- 
liant meteors  which  are  seen  to  flash  across  the 
heavens  and  disappear  in  the  same  instant.  Bastien- 
Lepage  was  one  of  these  meteors.  But  while  the 
others    leave    behind    them   only   a   luminous    trail 


12         BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

that  swiftly  vanishes,  this  rare  artist,  snatched  so 
prematurely  from  the  field  of  art,  traced  his 
passage  in  a  furrow  of  dazzling  splendour,  the 
radiance  of  which  has  not  even  yet  begun  to  fade. 

Bastien-Lepage  was  a  painter  in  the  noblest 
acceptation  of  the  term;  it  may  even  be  asserted 
that  he  would  have  exercised  considerable  influ- 
ence upon  the  art  of  his  epoch  if  Destiny  had  not 
stupidly  mown  down  the  sturdy  flower  of  his 
genius  in  the  very  hour  of  its  brightest  blossom- 
ing. Born  into  this  world  with  a  solid  tenacity 
of  purpose  which  seems  to  be  a  special  gift  of 
the  soil  of  Lorraine  to  her  sons  and  daughters, 
he  had  a  clear-cut  and  unalterable  conception  of 
what  painting  should  be.  His  mind  was  recep- 
tive only  of  simple  ideas,  his  eye  perceived  only 
visions  that  were  tangible,  such  as  were  unob- 
scured  by  any  shadow  or  any  artifice.  He  was 
the  apostle  of  clearness,  both  in  conception  and 
in  execution.  Every  time  that  he  tried  experi- 
mentally  to   turn   aside  from   his   chosen   path,   he 


PLATE  II.— PORTRAIT  OF  M.  WALLON 

(  Museum  of  the  Louvre ) 

Few  artists  have  been  able  to  endow  their  models  with  such 
an  animated  expression  of  life.  All  the  keenness,  intelligence  and 
austerity  of  this  prominent  personage,  known  by  the  name  of 
Father  of  the  Constitution,  are  eloquently  transferred  to  this  page, 
with  a  sobriety  of  means  that  still  further  emphasizes  its  vigour. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         15 

ceased  to  be  himself,  he  fell  below  his  own  stand- 
ards. What  interested  him  most  of  all,  in  the  life 
of  this  world  which  he  observed  so  eagerly,  as 
though  he  had  a  presentiment  of  his  early  end,  was 
nature's  most  precise  and  most  uncompromising 
manifestation,  both  in  line  and  in  relief;  namely,  the 
peasant  and  the  environment  which  frames  him. 
Having  deliberately  chosen  such  models,  Bastien- 
Lepage  could  not  pretend  to  be  the  painter  of 
the  Beautiful,  nor  did  he  ever  become  so.  He 
did  not  even  adorn  his  subjects  with  that  special 
sort  of  idealism  with  which  Millet  embellished 
even  his  most  uncouth  rustic  types,  a  slightly 
melancholy  idealism  obtained  by  a  sombre  toning 
down  of  colour,  which  Bastien-Lepage  held  in  horror. 
His  peasants  stand  out  boldly,  in  the  crude  glare 
of  flamboyant  noontide,  under  a  summer  sun  that 
refuses  to  leave  hidden  any  part  of  their  ugliness 
or  their  defects.  He  painted  them  as  he  saw 
them,  with  the  searching  rays  striking  them  full 
in  the  face;    and  his  brush  was  a  stranger  to  any 


i6         BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

compromise,  intolerant  of  even  the  slightest  better- 
ment, in  the  course  of  the  literal  transference  of 
his  model  to  his  canvas.  It  made  no  difference 
how  handsome  or  how  homely  a  given  subject 
might  be,  Bastien-Lepage  would  always  render 
him  precisely  as  nature,  in  a  grudging  or  indulgent 
mood,  had  made  him,  —  that  is  to  say,  truly 
and  sincerely,  with  a  precision  that  would  be 
almost  photographic,  if  the  minuteness  of  his 
technique  were  not  ennobled  by  the  high  quality 
of  his  art.  With  such  gifts,  Bastien-Lepage  was 
foreordained  to  be  a  marvellous  interpreter  of 
rural  life,  and  such  he  was  in  the  highest  degree;  in 
like  manner,  he  could  not  fail  to  become  a  por- 
trait painter  of  the  first  order,  and  it  was  in  this 
capacity  also  that  he  enrolled  himself  among  the 
most  interesting  and  vigorous  artists  of  our  epoch. 

HIS   YOUTH 

Jules   Bastien-Lepage   was   bom   at   Damvillers, 
in   the   department   of  the   Meuse,   on   the  first  of 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         17 

November,  1848.  His  parents  were  of  the  well- 
to-do  farming  class,  occupied  from  one  year's  end 
to  the  other  with  the  work  of  the  fields.  Conse- 
quently, all  the  early  boyhood  of  the  artist  was 
passed  in  daily  contact  with  the  soil  of  Lorraine 
and  with  the  sons  of  that  soil.  He  knew  them, 
one  and  all,  in  his  native  village;  he  grew  up  among 
them;  he  went  to  school  side  by  side  with  the 
other  little  rustics  of  his  own  age:  he  understood 
the  peasant  class,  with  all  their  faults,  their  vir- 
tues, their  habits  of  life;  he  learned  to  read  in 
their  faces,  which  were  a  sealed  book  to  the  out- 
sider, the  opinions  and  emotions  which  they  had 
in  common  with  him. 

These  childhood  impressions  were  destined  to 
abide  with  him  throughout  his  life;  he  cherished 
to  the  end  a  fervent  love  for  his  native  land, 
and  he  felt  that  he  had  an  infinitely  noble  task  in 
painting  that  life  of  the  fields  which  the  Second 
Empire  affected  to  despise. 


i8         BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

But  though  he  came  of  peasant  stock,  it  was 
Bastien-Lepage's  good  fortune  that  these  same 
peasants  were  in  prosperous  circumstances  and 
could  afford  to  give  him  an  education.  They  were 
ambitious  for  him;  and  it  hurt  them  to  see  their 
Httle  Jules,  who  was  so  wide-awake,  so  intelligent, 
and  at  the  same  time  so  frail,  leading  the  hard 
and  monotonous  life  of  the  fields,  following  the 
plough,  tilling  the  soil.  It  needed  only  a  few 
household  economies  to  enable  him  to  continue  his 
studies;  so,  when  the  time  came,  young  Bastien- 
Lepage  wended  his  way  towards  Verdun,  where  he 
entered  upon  his  college  course. 

There  is  nothing  that  marks  in  any  particular 
way  these  years  of  study,  nothing  to  indicate  that 
the  boy  was  a  youthful  prodigy,  nor  that  he  showed 
any  special  aptitude  for  drawing.  But  he  was 
studious,  diligent,  and  anxious  to  avoid  repre- 
mands  and  to  fulfil  the  expectations  of  his  parents. 
In  due  time  he  obtained  his  bachelor's  degree, 
which  at  that  period  was  highly  prized.     His  father, 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         19 

filled  with  pride,  already  began  to  form  brilliant 
projects  for  his  future,  already  foresaw  him  a 
distinguished  official,  supervising  some  great  branch 
of  the  public  service.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a 
position  was  found  for  the  young  baccalaureate 
in  a  government  department  which  was  neither 
the  most  desirable  nor  the  one  of  least  impor- 
tance; namely,  the  Post  Office  Department.  Bas- 
tien-Lepage  was  not  vastly  delighted  with  the 
choice,  but,  dutiful  son  that  he  was,  he  accepted  the 
modest  clerkship  offered  him.  One  circumstance 
contributed,  in  a  large  degree,  towards  overcom- 
ing his  reluctance:  the  post  assigned  to  him  from 
the  start  was  in  Paris,  of  which  he  had  often  heard 
marvellous  things,  and  in  which  he  hoped  that  he 
would  be  able  to  follow  his  secret  inclination.  For, 
in  the  interval  his  vocation  had  revealed  itself;  he 
had  conceived  a  passion  for  drawing,  for  colour- 
ing, for  painting;  and,  like  Correggio,  he  was 
eager  to  say  in  his  turn,  **I  too  am  a  painter!" 
Accordingly   he   set   forth,    leaving    behind    him 


20        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

no  suspicion  of  his  purpose.  Upon  arriving  at 
the  capital,  he  acquitted  himself  scrupulously  of 
his  official  duties,  but  every  leisure  moment  was 
consecrated  to  visiting  the  museums  and  exhibi- 
tions. He  saturated  himself  with  the  wealth  of 
beauty  strewn  broadcast  through  the  Louvre,  and 
was  thrilled  with  admiration  at  contact  with  the 
masters  of  every  school  and  country.  He  did  not 
care  equally  for  them  all,  in  spite  of  their  genius; 
his  intimate  preferences  leaned  to  the  side  of 
Flemish  rather  than  Italian  art;  but  he  was  not 
insensible  to  the  lofty  inspiration,  the  severe  har- 
mony, the  faultless  composition,  which  have  made 
the  great  masters  of  the  Renaissance  the  most 
astonishing  prodigies  in  the  history  of  painting. 

But  while  the  older  schools  of  art  delighted 
him,  he  followed  with  no  less  attention  the  move- 
ment of  contemporary  painting.  At  the  hour  when 
his  critical  spirit  awoke,  certain  new  elements  and 
new  formulas  had  come  to  light  and  had  been  put 
into   practice  by  two  audacious  and   gifted   artists 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         21 

by  the  names  of  Courbet  and  Manet.  Although 
the  prolonged  struggle  between  the  classicists  and 
romanticists  had  not  yet  come  to  an  end,  these 
two  rival  schools  were  entrenched  in  their  positions 
and  refused  to  stir  forth  from  them.  Supporters 
of  Delacroix  and  of  Ingres  confined  themselves 
strictly  to  their  respective  hostile  formulas,  doing 
nothing  either  to  expand  or  to  rejuvenate  them. 
Whoever  dared  to  venture  outside  of  one  of  these 
two  beaten  tracks  was  regarded  as  a  madman,  and 
his  attempts  were  greeted  with  derisive  clamours 
by  both  parties,  who  declared  a  momentary 
truce,  for  the  purpose  of  annihilating  him  by  a 
joint  attack.  Courbet,  who  was  scorned  by  Ingres, 
met  with  equally  harsh  criticism  from  Delacroix; 
and  as  for  Manet,  he  had  managed  to  call  down 
universal  wrath  upon  his  head,  and  at  the  Salon 
of  1863  it  became  necessary  to  place  his  Olympia 
in  the  very  topmost  line  upon  the  wall,  in  order  to 
protect  it  from  the  fury  of  the  public,  hounded  on 
by  the  hue  and  cry  of  the  critics. 


22        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

Bastine-Lepage  made  mental  notes  of  all  the 
episodes  of  this  struggle;  he  listened  to  the  criti- 
cisms and  passed  them  through  the  crucible  of  his 
unspoiled  mind,  in  the  presence  of  the  very  works 
under  indictment.  His  good  sense  showed  him  how 
large  an  element  of  injustice  entered  into  these 
hostilities.  Moreover,  his  peasant  blood  inclined 
him  to  sympathize  with  those  artists  who  refused 
to  bind  themselves  to  seek  for  beauty  only  within 
the  limits  of  academic  form,  and  who  had  the 
ability  to  make  it  flash  forth  from  the  humblest 
and  even  the  most  vulgar  type  of  subject.  Further- 
more, this  constant  study  of  matters  pertaining  to 
art,  day  by  day  added  fuel  to  the  hidden  fire 
smouldering  within  him;  he  was  conscious  of  its 
mounting  flame.  Back  of  the  rude  sketches,  drawn 
and  coloured  in  the  tiny  chamber  befitting  an 
humble  postal  clerk,  he  perceived  vaguely  that  he 
also  possessed  the  temperament  of  a  painter,  and 
little  by  little  he  witnessed  the  unfolding  of  his 
artist's  soul. 


PLATE  III.  — THE  ARTIST'S  MOTHER 
(Collection  of  E.  Bastien- Lepage) 

What  a  kindly  and  gentle  face  this  is,  the  face  of  the  woman  to 
v/hom  the  artist  applied  the  tender  endearment  of  "  Good  little 
mother"!  In  this  work,  it  is  evident  that  the  heart  guided  the 
hand  of  the  painter.  None  but  a  son  could  have  rendered  vi^ith 
such  emotion  the  humid  tenderness  of  those  eyes  and  the  maternal 
caress  of  those  lips.  It  is  a  powerful  work,  which  enrolls  Bastien- 
Lepage  in  the  foremost  rank  of  portrait  painters. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        25 

At  last,  unable  to  bear  it  longer,  he  resigned 
from  the  postal  service  and  enrolled  his  name  at 
the  Beaux-Arts.  At  this  time,  when  he  entered 
the  studio  of  Cabanel,  he  was  but  little  more  than 
nineteen  years  of  age.  Cabanel,  to  be  sure,  was 
not  the  painter  of  his  choice,  but  Bastien-Lepage 
was  not  for  that  reason  any  the  less  appreciative 
of  a  system  of  instruction  which  was  dominated 
by  a  worship  of  line-work.  His  training  under 
Cabanel  was  not  without  value  to  the  young  artist, 
who  throughout  his  life,  even  in  his  most  realistic 
paintings,  proved  himself  to  be  an  impeccable 
master  of  design. 

At  the  outset,  however,  he  was  beset  with 
difficulties.  Now  that  his  salary  as  a  postal  clerk 
had  ceased  and  remittances  from  the  family  were 
necessarily  restricted,  Bastien-Lepage  exerted  him- 
self to  gain  a  living  by  his  own  efforts.  He  had 
no  lack  of  courage,  and  he  had  in  addition  that 
Lorraine  tenacity  which  enabled  him  to  confront 
all  difficulties  with  tranquil  assurance.     He  worked 


26        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

with  desperate  energy,  and  in  the  intervals  of 
respite  from  his  labours  he  overran  all  Paris  in 
search  of  orders  from  business  houses.  It  was  an 
inglorious  task,  but  at  least  it  enabled  him  to  live; 
thus  it  happened  that  about  1873  he  produced  a 
widely  circulated  advertisement  for  a  perfumery 
house.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  remained  wholly 
unknown;  and  although  he  had  already  exhibited 
one  painting,  at  the  Salon  of  1870,  it  was  passed  by 
unheeded  both  by  the  critics  and  the  general  public. 

This  lack  of  success  in  no  wise  discouraged  him, 
for  he  had  faith.  It  was  in  the  year  1874  that 
he  exhibited  The  Song  of  Springtime.  It  was  a 
veritable  revelation.  There  was  no  neglect  this 
time.  The  public  gathered  in  throngs  before  his 
canvas,  and  the  critics,  notwithstanding  a  few 
objections  to  details,  were  lavish  in  their  praise 
and  hailed  him  as  having  the  qualities  of  a  true 
artist.  Naturally,  the  picture  was  not  perfect, 
but  it  well  merited  the  flattering  reception  which 
it   received.     In   a   springtime    landscape   a   young 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        27 

peasant  girl  is  seated  beneath  a  tree,  looking  before 
her  over  a  sunlit  plain.  Around  her  skirts  a 
whole  bevy  of  Cupids  are  gathering  blossoms  and 
offering  them  to  the  girl.  Here,  at  the  first  stroke, 
is  an  assertion  of  the  young  painter's  independence, 
his  formal  determination  to  emancipate  himself 
from  the  accepted  formulas  in  his  treatment  of 
the  eternal  theme  of  a  young  girl's  soul,  opening 
to  the  first  appeal  of  love.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  allegory  is  somewhat  clumsy;  you  realize  that 
the  author's  talent  does  not  run  to  sentimental 
compositions.  Yet  the  young  girl  is  brushed  in 
with  an  energetic  hand,  and  all  that  rather  coarse 
robustness  that  distinguishes  the  women  of  peasant 
stock  is  blended  in  a  masterly  manner  with  the 
naive  innocence  of  simple  souls.  The  Song  of 
Springtime  was  Bastien-Lepage's  first  attempt  in 
that  vein  of  realistic  painting  in  which  he  was 
soon  destined  to  excel. 

That    same    year    he   produced     Grandfather's 
Portrait,     which     also     attracted     much     attention. 


28        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

The  artist  had  placed  his  model  in  the  little  garden 
adjoining  the  home  of  his  birth.  This  portrait, 
which  belongs  to-day  to  the  painter's  brother,  is 
remarkable  for  its  naturalness,  its  touch  of  inti- 
mate understanding,  and  its  vigour  of  execution. 

Bastien-Lepage  had  now  acquired  a  name.  His 
Song  of  Springtime  won  him  a  third  class  medal, 
and  the  State  purchased  the  painting  for  the 
museum  at  Verdun,  where  it  at  present  hangs. 

In  the  following  year  he  exhibited  Her  First 
Communion,  picturing  a  young  and  pretty  coun- 
try girl,  stiff  and  self-conscious  under  her  white 
veil.  This  work  was  the  product  of  keen  obser- 
vation, and  is  deliberately  stilted  and  traditional 
in  its  style  of  execution,  recalling  in  some  meas- 
ure the  French  primitive  school.  Bastien-Lepage 
evidently  had  in  mind  the  portraits  by  Frangois 
Cluet:  his  little  communicant  is  infinitely  arti- 
ficial in  her  spotless  finery,  yet  infinitely  alive 
under  the  thin  surface  wash  of  colour  which 
recalls  the   Elizabeth   of  Austria,    wife   of   Charles 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        29 

IX,  as  painted  by  the  greatest  of  the  French 
primitives. 

Simultaneously  with  this  picture  he  exhibited 
the  Portrait  of  M.  Hayem,  in  which  the  vigorous 
treatment  of  the  face,  with  its  clear,  firm  colour 
tones  and  sober  workmanship,  proclaimed  him 
already  a  portrait  painter  of  the  first  order. 

His  success  this  time  was  more  marked:  he 
received  a  medal  of  the  second  class.  A  less 
modest  artist  would  have  allowed  himself  to  be 
borne  tranquilly  along  by  the  mounting  tide  of 
glory;  but  Bastien-Lepage  did  not  yet  feel  that 
he  was  sufficiently  sure  of  himself.  He  wished 
to  continue  for  a  while  longer,  working,  learning, 
perfecting  himself;  he  even  conceived  the  idea, 
in  spite  of  his  renown,  of  competing  for  the 
Prix  de  Rome.  Accordingly,  the  painter  of  The 
Song  of  Springtime  and  Her  First  Communion 
might  shortly  after  have  been  seen  entering  the 
lists  like  any  ordinary  nobody.  He  obtained  only 
the  second  prize. 


30        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

He  presented  himself  again  the  following  year, 
but  with  no  better  success.  The  subject  assigned 
for  the  competition  was  Priam  at  the  Feet  of 
Achilles.  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  such  a 
theme  was  little  calculated  to  inspire  an  artist  of 
Bastien-Lepage's  temperament;  he  found  it  im- 
possible to  attain  full  development  unless  in  the 
presence  of  nature  herself.  No  amount  of  manual 
dexterity  can  take  the  place  of  inborn  faith,  and 
the  young  artist  had  no  faith  in  antiquity;  he 
never  could  muster  any  enthusiasm  for  the  Greek 
or  Roman  gods,  nor  for  historic  scenes  in  which  the 
very  attitudes  are  dictated  by  the  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  time-honoured  tradition. 

Nevertheless,  the  work  is  not  without  merit; 
it  is  forceful,  its  colouring  is  good,  and  it  falls  short 
of  perfection  only  in  failing  to  conform  sufficiently 
with  what  we  know  of  ancient  life.  This  painting 
is  at  present  to  be  found  in  the  Museum  at  Lille. 

This  rebuff  did  not  discourage  Bastien-Lepage 
unreasonably;    but   he   decided   to   confine    himself 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         31 

in  the  future  to  painting  portraits  and  picturing  the 
life  of  the  fields. 

HIS    BEST   YEARS 

The  same  year  that  he  failed  for  the  second 
time  in  the  competition  for  the  Prix  de  Rome, 
Bastien-Lepage  painted  The  Portrait  of  M.  Wallon, 
which  is  one  of  his  most  important  works  as  a 
portrait  painter.  In  spite  of  its  tendency  towards 
naturalism,  this  canvas  was  nevertheless  still  con- 
ceived in  accordance  with  the  established  technique, 
and  the  keen  and  serious  visage  of  the  Father 
of  the  Constitution  standing  out  against  its  sombre 
background  is  a  fine  study  in  chiaroscuro. 

But  the  following  year  he  struck  the  naturalistic 
note  more  strongly  in  his  Portrait  of  Lady  L., 
the  only  full-length,  life-sized  portrait  that  he 
ever  painted;  and  he  declared  himself  plainly 
and  definitely  a  realist  in  his  picture  entitled  My 
Parents.  It  would  be  impossible  to  find  two 
figures  more  life-like,  more  literal,  or  painted  with 


32        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

greater  sincerity.  This  canvas  amounted  to  a 
declaration  of  principles;  for  an  artist  whom  filial 
piety  cannot  turn  aside  from  the  truth  will  never 
make  sacrifices  to  convention:  he  will  never  con- 
sent to  embellish  or  idealize  his  models  through 
tricks  of  his  craft;  he  will  paint  them  as  he  sees 
them,  without  correcting  any  of  the  imperfections 
and  ugliness  with  which  nature  has  afflicted  them. 
How  clearly  we  recognize  that  these  likenesses  of 
Bastien-Lepage's  parents  are  absolutely  true  to 
life,  and  how  much  better  we  like  them  as  they 
are,  in  the  simple  intimacy  of  daily  life,  than  if 
they  had  been  decked  out,  all  spick  and  span,  as 
a  less  scrupulous  artist  would  inevitably  have  shown 
them  to  us! 

Bastien-Lepage's  brother,  himself  a  painter  of 
some  talent,  has  preserved  in  his  studio  at  Neuilly 
a  certain  number  of  the  artist's  works,  which  he 
surrounds  with  pious  care  and  feelingly  exhibits 
to  occasional  visitors.  The  family  portraits  are 
there,  pulsating  with  life  and  radiating  that  gener- 


PLATE  IV— HAY-MAKING 

(Museum  of  the  Luxembourg) 

A  masterpiece  of  contemporary  painting,  because  of  the  truth  of 
its  attitudes  and  the  vigour  of  its  execution.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  render  more  forcibly  the  blissfulness  of  rest  when  the  body  has 
been  racked  by  the  exhausting  labour  of  the  soil.  In  this  picture, 
Bastien- Lepage  revealed  himself  as  an  incomparable  painter  of 
rural  life. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        35 

ous  peasant  kindliness  which  finds  expression  in 
a  broad  and  tender  smile.  The  father,  seated  in  a 
chair  in  his  garden,  an  old  man  with  shrewd  yet 
friendly  eyes,  seems  so  real,  so  actual,  that  we 
almost  expect  him  to  step  down  from  his  frame 
to  bid  us  welcome.  And  what  a  marvel  the  Por- 
trait of  my  Mother  is,  which  forms  a  companion 
piece  on  the  same  wall!  A  somewhat  wistful 
charm  pervades  this  face,  with  its  deeply  graven 
lines,  and  an  infinite  tenderness,  a  true  mother's 
tenderness,  hovers  over  the  thin,  pale  lips. 

Perhaps  this  is  the  moment,  in  the  presence 
of  these  pictures,  to  emphasize  Bastien-Lepage's 
great  value  as  a  colourist.  Few  contemporary 
painters  have  used  colour  with  so  much  tact, 
such  veritable  mastery  as  he.  Others  have  em- 
ployed more  dazzling  tonal  schemes  and  have 
achieved  more  gorgeous  effects,  but  no  one  has 
rendered  with  such  exact  truth  the  tints  of  the 
flesh,  the  grayish  folds  of  wrinkles,  the  profound 
light  of  the  eye.     And  his  colour  is  always  clear, 


36        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

always  unmistakably  employed  to  produce  a  sought- 
after  effect.  There  is  no  artifice,  no  trick-work, 
it  is  all  straightforward,  honest,  precise;  the  oppo- 
sition of  light  and  shade  never  result  in  opacity, 
bitumen  plays  no  part  in  his  canvases,  the  aston- 
ishing relief  of  which  is  obtained  by  means  of 
such  perfect  simplicity  that  it  recalls  the  inimi- 
table technique  of  Correggio. 

In  1878  he  exhibited  Hay-making ,  that  magis- 
terial page  from  the  life  of  the  fields  which  to-day 
is  the  pride  of  the  Luxembourg  museum,  and 
which  the  art  of  the  engraver  has  scattered  broad- 
cast to  the  extent  of  millions  of  copies. 

This  picture  represents  a  vast  sun-bathed 
meadow,  overstrewn  with  new-mown  hay  and 
punctuated,  here  and  there,  by  the  rounded  cones 
of  the  stacks.  Against  the  blue  background  of  the 
sky,  green  hill-tops  trace  an  undulant  line.  In  the 
foreground  a  robust,  bony-armed  country-woman 
is  seated  on  the  grass,  her  legs  stretched  out  be- 
fore   her    in    an    attitude    expressive    of   the    utter 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        37 

weariness  resulting  from  the  work  performed.  Her 
head,  soUdly  planted  on  her  massive  neck,  is  a 
marvel  of  realism;  in  her  vulgar  peasant  face 
we  may  read  health,  strength,  and  a  sort  of  dulled 
mentality  born  of  physical  fatigue.  In  every  fibre 
of  her  exhausted  body  the  woman  is  veritably 
resting,  and  through  her  half-parted  lips  it  seems 
as  though  we  could  detect  the  passage  of  her 
hurried  breathing.  The  man  beside  her,  no  less 
worn  out  than  she,  is  stretched  at  full  length  on 
the  thick  couch  of  grass,  and  with  his  hat  over 
his  face,  to  shelter  it  from  the  sun,  he  is  sleeping 
as  though  dead  to  the  world. 

Every  detail  of  this  canvas  is  perfect,  because 
every  detail  is  true,  drawn  straight  from  life,  the 
fruit  of  minute  observation.  In  it  Bastien-Lepage 
once  more  affirms  his  predilection  for  the  open 
country;  and  nothing  could  be  more  impressive 
than  these  two  uncouth,  vulgar,  homely  human 
beings,  set  amid  the  splendour  of  a  meadow  turned 
golden  by  the  sun.     It  is  an  every-day  spectacle;   it 


38        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

would  not  seem  at  first  sight  to  contain  material 
for  a  picture.  But  Bastien-Lepage  has  succeeded 
in  proving  indisputably  that  beauty  does  not  con- 
sist solely  in  the  harmony  of  the  body,  but  in 
the  impression  which  emanates  from  scenes  that 
are  most  humble  in  outward  appearance.  In  these 
few  square  feet  of  canvas  the  artist  has  summed  up, 
perhaps  without  intending  it,  all  the  majesty  of 
nature  and  all  the  grandeur  of  the  life  of  the  fields. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  this  work  is 
a  transcript  of  the  soil  of  Lorraine,  that  good 
natal  soil  which  he  loved  so  profoundly  and  to 
which  he  returned  eagerly,  year  after  year. 

Bastien-Lepage  was  exclusively  the  painter  of 
the  rural  aspects  of  Lorraine;  he  loved  its  hori- 
zons, its  fertile  and  undulating  plains.  And  when, 
occasionally,  he  ventured  into  allegory,  the  back- 
ground was  still  Lorraine,  and  the  characters  were 
developed  in  the  familiar  setting  of  his  native 
village,  Damvillers.  And  how  he  loved  it!  How 
he    enjoyed     the    warm    atmosphere    of    affection 


PLATE  v.  — PORTRAIT  OF  M.  HAYEM 

(Museum  of  the  Luxembourg) 

A  marvel  of  discernment  and  of  rendering.  The  face,  to  be  sure, 
has  a  strong  originality  ;  but  there  is  no  slight  merit  in  having  ex- 
pressed with  such  striking  truth  the  piercing  intelligence  of  the 
eyes  that  twinkle  behind  the  lenses  of  the  spectacles,  and  the  en- 
ergy, tempered  with  satiric  humour,  of  his  whole  odd  physiog- 
nomy. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         41 

which  always  awaited  him  when  his  father,  grand- 
father, and  vahant  and  devoted  "Uttle  mother" 
gathered  at  night  around  the  family  table!  He 
made  his  home  in  Paris,  because  residence  there 
was  indispensable,  both  for  business  and  artistic 
reasons;  but  the  moment  that  he  could  escape 
from  the  capital  and  its  constraints,  he  would  go 
to  rest  and  gather  new  energy  in  the  midst  of 
the  family  circle.  He  had  a  spacious  studio  in- 
stalled in  the  second  story  of  the  ancestral  home; 
and  there  he  worked,  absolutely  happy  so  long 
as  he  could  see  the  old  grandfather  at  his  side, 
pipe  in  mouth,  examining  the  work  with  a  knowing 
air,  and  the  father  and  mother  in  a  sort  of  ecstasy, 
as  they  watched  him  fill  in  his  canvas. 

Nevertheless,  Bastien-Lepage  was  no  studio 
painter;  it  was  not  from  the  height  of  a  window 
that  he  chose  to  contemplate  nature,  but  in  the 
open  fields,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  furrows;  and 
it  was  there  also,  in  the  midst  of  the  wheat  and 
the   rye,   that  he   set   up  his   easel   and   painted   his 


42        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

peasants  in  action,  in  the  daily  fulfilment  of  their 
thankless  task.  And  by  picturing  them  thus,  with- 
out artifice,  in  all  their  simplicity  of  gesture  and 
coarseness  of  feature,  he  imbued  his  canvases  with 
a  profound  spirit  of  poetry,  through  which  the 
often  brutal  realism  of  his  subjects  was  redeemed 
and  ennobled.  In  the  presence  of  these  peasants 
he  experienced  a  joy  more  genuine  than  he  had 
ever  felt  before  the  rarest  canvases  in  any  museum. 
Not  that  he  denied  or  disdained  the  genius  of  the 
great  ancestors  of  painting;  he  had  too  much 
reverence  for  his  art  ever  to  dream  of  doing  so. 
But  when  it  came  to  a  question  of  training,  he 
could  learn  more  from  nature  than  from  them. 
Listen  to  his  own  exposition  of  his  ideas: 

"What  a  pity,"  he  wrote,  "that  we  are  initi- 
ated, whether  we  will  or  not,  into  traditions  and 
routines,  under  the  pretext  that  this  is  the  way 
to  train  us  to  be  artists!  It  would  be  so  simple 
to  teach  the  use  of  brush  and  palette,  without 
ever   once   mentioning   the   name   of   Michelangelo 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        43 

or  Raphael  or  Murillo  or  Domenichino!  We  could 
then  go  home,  back  to  Brittany  or  Gascony, 
Lorraine  or  Normandy,  and  peacefully  paint  the 
portrait  of  our  own  province;  and  if  some  morn- 
ing the  book  we  had  chanced  to  read  aroused  the 
wish  to  paint  a  Prodigal  Son,  or  Priam  at  the  feet 
of  Achilles,  we  could  reconstruct  the  scene  to  suit 
ourselves,  without  needing  to  resort  to  the  museums, 
taking  the  setting  from  our  own  surroundings  and 
making  use  of  the  models  close  at  hand,  as  though 
the  old  drama  dated  only  from  yesterday.  That 
is  the  way  for  an  artist  to  succeed  in  breathing 
the  breath  of  life  into  his  art  and  in  making  it 
beautiful  and  appealing  to  the  eyes  of  the  whole 
world.  And  that  is  the  goal  towards  which  I  am 
striving  with  all  my  strength." 

As  painter  of  the  open  air,  he  became  in  a 
certain  sense  the  founder  of  a  school,  without 
meaning  to  be;  for  his  conception  of  the  painter's 
art  won  over  a  whole  group  of  young  artists  who 
united  in  hailing  him  as  their  master.     Each  year 


44  BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

his  offerings  to  the  Salon  were  impatiently  awaited, 
and  his  followers  gathered  in  full  force  before  them, 
discussing,  comparing,  acclaiming;  each  Salon  be- 
came the  occasion  for  a  new  success,  the  critics 
were  unanimous  in  praising  him,  the  public  adopted 
his  pictures  for  their  own,  because  they  could 
understand  his  clear  and  rigorous  manner.  What- 
ever hostility  he  met  with  was  among  his  own 
colleagues,  at  least  among  such  of  them  as  were  dis- 
couraged and  humiliated  by  his  vigorous  originality. 
Nevertheless,  the  Exposition  of  1878,  at  which  he 
had  gathered  together  all  his  works,  was  an  espe- 
cially triumphant  occasion  for  him;  yet  when  the 
awards  were  distributed,  he  discovered  that  he  had 
received  nothing  but  a  medal  of  the  third  class. 

At  the  Salon  of  1879,  Basti en-Lepage  exhibited 
his  Women  gathering  Potatoes,  which  formed  a 
companion  piece  to  his  Hay -making.  Here  again 
we  have  the  landscape  of  Lorraine  and  the  eternal 
and  infinitely  varied  theme  of  rural  labour.  In  a 
sun-parched   field   two   women   are    toiling   to   reap 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        45 

the  harvest  of  potatoes.  While  the  one  in  the 
middle  distance  is  stooping  to  turn  up  the  ripe 
bulbs  from  the  soil,  the  other,  placed  in  the  fore- 
ground, is  striving  to  empty  the  contents  of  her 
basket  into  a  sack  which  she  holds  open  by  a 
wonderfully  natural  movement  of  her  knee.  Noth- 
ing could  be  simpler  or  more  humble  than  this 
subject,  and  yet  one  feels  drawn  towards  it,  con- 
quered by  the  truth  of  these  two  figures,  both  in 
their  attitude  and  their  expression.  Involuntarily 
memory  conjures  up  another  canvas.  The  Gleaners, 
and  we  realize  that  it  is  impossible  to  resist  that 
higher  appeal  which  the  great  artists  succeed  in 
giving  to  the  most  commonplace  episode  of  farm- 
ing life.  But,  unlike  Millet,  Bastien-Lepage  does 
not  awaken  in  us  any  compassion  for  these  beings 
who  toil,  stooping  above  the  earth;  no  touch  of 
bitterness  saddens  his  pictures,  and  the  types 
which  he  shows  to  us  have  the  healthy  vigour  of 
peasants  who  live  their  lives  in  the  open  air  and 
love  the  soil  which  nourishes  them. 


46        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

This  picture,  when  it  appeared,  produced  a 
sensation.  Coming  directly  after  the  Hay -making, 
it  definitely  established  Bastien-Lepage's  talent  and 
placed  him  in  the  foremost  rank  of  painters  of 
rural  life.  The  critics  hailed  this  powerful  canvas 
with  enthusiasm.  Theodore  de  Banville,  writing 
of  the  Salon  of  1879,  said:  "M.  Bastien-Lepage  is 
the  king  of  this  Exposition.  Young  as  he  is,  he  has 
started  in  to  produce  masterpieces:  he  is  very 
wise!  For  in  later  years  an  artist  continues  to 
copy  himself,  with  more  or  less  cleverness  and 
success;  but  the  creative  genius  has  taken  wing, 
like  a  bird  on  whose  tail  we  have  failed  to  drop 
the  indispensable  grain  of  salt.  The  October 
Season  pictures  the  harvesting  of  potatoes.  The 
earth,  the  encompassing  air  as  far  as  we  can  see, 
the  sky,  the  solitude  laden  with  silence,  are  all 
evoked  for  us  in  this  picture  by  the  sincerity  of  its 
powerful  painter;  the  peasant  women  are  done 
in  a  masterly  manner,  and  precisely  for  the  reason 
that  he  has  seen  them  apart  from  all  convention 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        47 

and  has  not  tried  to  idealize  them  by  any  hack- 
neyed device." 

Albert  Wolff  was  no  less  enthusiastic:  **The 
colouring  in  Women  harvesting  Potatoes  is  in- 
gratiating and  discreet;  not  a  discordant  touch 
disturbs  the  beautiful  harmony  of  this  canvas, 
over  which  the  silence  of  the  open  country  has 
descended,  enveloping  the  obscure  toil.  It  is  only 
artists  of  superior  powers  who  can  embody  so  much 
charm  in  a  single  conception." 

Another  feature  of  the  same  Salon  was  his 
magnificent  portrait  of  Madame  Sarah  Bernhardt, 
a  marvel  of  expression  and  of  delicate  art,  em- 
bodied in  a  pale  symphony  of  tenderest  whites, 
blending  harmoniously  with  the  warmest  tones  of 
gold.  The  great  tragic  actress  is  portrayed  draped, 
almost  swathed,  in  a  gown  of  white  china  silk, 
verging  on  the  faintest  yellowish  caste;  she  is 
posed  in  profile,  that  cameo-like  profile  that  has 
so  often  been  portrayed.  She  is  seated,  with  a  sort 
of  intentional  rigidity,  on  a  white  fur  robe,  and  is 


48        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

examining  a  statuette  of  Orpheus,  in  old  ivory, 
which  she  holds  in  her  hands.  Her  expressive  and 
intellectual  features  are  treated  with  a  vigour 
which  does  full  justice  to  the  classic  beauty  and 
virile  energy  of  the  sitter. 

'*The  work  as  a  whole,"  wrote  the  critic  of 
the  Revue  des  Beaux- Arts,  "possesses  supreme 
distinction  and  an  admirable  delicacy  of  colouring. 
The  silvery  tones  of  the  whites,  the  warm  grays 
of  the  draped  gown  lead  up  to  the  freshness  of  the 
delicate,  rose-like  flesh  tints,  beneath  the  crown  of 
close  curled  locks  that  seem  at  once  massive  and 
weightless.  The  artist's  hand  was  sure  of  itself; 
it  neither  groped  nor  hesitated.  The  execution  is 
such  that  the  drawing  of  the  gown  and  the  lines 
of  the  face  seem  to  have  been  traced  by  an  en- 
graver's tool.  In  this  case,  however,  definiteness 
has  not  resulted  in  stiffness.  The  sharp  design  has 
not  imprisoned  unwilling  forms;  it  leaves  them 
free  to  move  as  they  please  within  the  limits  of 
their  contours  which  are  its  domain.     It  is   worth 


PLATE  VI.  — PORTRAIT  OF  M.  X 

(  Museum  at  Verdun ) 

Bastien-Lepage  possessed  the  rare  quality  of  being  able  to 
bestow  the  same  superior  skill  upon  every  part  of  a  portrait.  Being 
sincere  before  all  else,  he  never  tried  to  shirk  any  difficulty;  this  is 
seen  in  the  care  he  took  in  painting  the  hands  of  all  his  various 
sitters,  showing  something  akin  to  vanity  in  the  marvellous  talent 
he  displayed  in  rendering  them.  In  this  portrait  —  just  as  in  all 
the  others  —  the  hands  are  quite  as  truly  a  miracle  of  execution 
as  the  face  itself. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         51 

while  to  examine  with  a  lens  the  marvellous  process 
which,  by  the  aid  of  imperceptible  half-tones,  has 
softened  the  modelling  of  the  face  and  hands." 

These  two  pictures  earned  Bastien-Lepage  the 
Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  and  a  definite 
recognition  of  his  talent.  The  artist  could  not 
keep  his  delight  to  himself  and,  good  son  that  he 
was,  wished  to  share  it  with  his  beloved  family; 
so  he  sent  for  them,  to  pay  him  a  visit  in  Paris. 
The  grandfather  and  the  ''good  little  mother" 
arrived,  full  of  pride  in  this  famous  son,  of  whom 
the  whole  world  was  talking.  He  showed  them 
the  sights  of  the  city  and  was  only  too  happy  to 
have  a  chance  to  introduce  them  to  his  friends; 
he  took  his  mother  to  the  big  shops  and  insisted 
on  choosing  silk  cloaks  and  silk  dresses  for  her. 
The  poor  woman  protested,  saying  that  they  were 
far  too  fine,  that  she  would  never  dare  to  wear 
anything  like  that.  "Show  us  some  more,"  ordered 
the  devoted  artist,  "I  want  mamma  to  have  her 
choice  of  the  best  there  is!" 


52        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

After  the  old  people  had  returned  home  to 
Lorraine,  Bastien-Lepage  set  out  for  England, 
where  he  was  to  paint  the  portrait  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  afterwards  became  King  Edward  VII. 

In  this  portrait  of  tiny  dimensions  the  Prince 
is  represented  in  fancy  costume,  after  the  manner 
of  Holbein.  His  garments  recall  in  a  measure  those 
worn  by  King  Henry  VIII,  in  the  celebrated  por- 
trait done  by  the  great  painter  from  Basle.  The 
Collar  of  the  Golden  Fleece  is  displayed  upon  his 
breast.  In  the  background  of  the  picture  may  be 
seen  dimly,  through  a  veil  of  mist,  the  panorama 
of  London  and  the  gray  ribbon  of  the  Thames. 
The  portrait  is  a  little  gem,  which  Bastien-Lepage 
wrought  with  the  minuteness  and  affectedly  hieratic 
mannerism  of  Holbein  and  the  French  primitive 
school.  Although  at  present  in  possession  of  M. 
Emile  Bastien-Lepage,  it  will  eventually  find  its 
place,  together  with  a  goodly  number  of  other  can- 
vases, in  the  museum  of  the  Louvre,  to  which  the 
brother  of  the  great  artist  intends  to  bequeath  them. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        53 

It  should  be  mentioned  here,  in  connection 
with  this  work,  that  Bastien-Lepage  continued  to 
make  more  and  more  of  a  specialty  of  portraits 
of  reduced  dimensions,  and  that  he  acquired  in 
this  respect  a  reputation  of  the  first  order.  He 
loved  these  little  canvases,  scarcely  larger  than 
miniatures,  and  he  expended  on  their  scanty  sur- 
faces an  inimitable  skill;  he  embellished  them  with 
a  wealth  of  accessory  detail  which  brings  to  mind, 
as  we  look  at  them  to-day,  the  formidable  labours 
of  the  illuminators  of  the  middle  ages.  But  this 
goldsmith's  work,  far  from  impairing  the  effect  of 
the  whole,  adds  a  certain  fascination  to  it.  And 
he  expended  upon  the  study  of  the  face  the  same 
degree  of  devotion  that  he  gave  to  the  rendering 
of  a  garment.  His  models  relive  with  an  intensity 
of  life  such  as  could  be  expressed  only  by  an  artist 
who  has  made  a  life-long  study  of  nature  in  her 
minutest  manifestations. 

To  name  over  his  portraits  would  be  to  mention 
an   equal   number  of  masterpieces.     The   catalogue 


54        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

would  be  too  long,  for  Bastien-Lepage  was  an 
indefatigable  workman.  We  may  content  ourselves 
with  citing  those  that  are  most  widely  known: 
that  of  M.  Andrieux,  one-time  Prefect  of  Police, 
whose  refined  features  are  rendered  with  striking 
truth;  that  of  /.  Bastien-Lepage,  the  artist's 
uncle,  which  is  here  reproduced  and  which  shows 
him  violin  in  hand,  a  clear  and  vigorous  piece  of 
brush-work,  transcribing  life  in  telling  strokes, 
with  an  astonishing  simplicity  of  means.  This  fine 
example  is  to  be  seen  to-day  in  the  museum  at 
Verdun.  And  in  the  same  museum  there  is  still 
another  that  deserves  mention;  namely,  the  excel- 
lent Portrait  of  M,  X.  And  we  must  not  forget 
the  Portrait  of  Andre  Theuriet,  born,  like  Bastien- 
Lepage,  on  the  banks  of  the  Meuse  and  attached 
to  the  painter  by  ties  of  almost  fraternal  affection. 
One  feels  that,  in  this  picture,  the  heart  must 
have  guided  the  hand,  for  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  another  work  more  magisterial  in  execution 
and   more  delicate  in  finish.     And  lastly,   there  is 


BASTIEN  LEPAGE         55 

Mme,  Bastien-Lepage,  the  "good  little  mother," 
as  the  great  artist  and  loving  son  used  to  call  her. 
He  posed  her  in  the  garden  of  the  home  at  Dam- 
villers.  She  is  seated  on  a  stone  bench;  on  her 
knees  rests  a  large  garden  hat;  her  two  hands  are 
crossed,  one  over  the  other,  and  in  the  left  she 
holds  a  little  bunch  of  field  flowers.  She  is  clad 
in  a  loose  dress  of  sombre  colour,  cut  with  a  pele- 
rine; and  nothing  but  the  one  bright  spot  formed 
by  the  white  collar  reveals  the  severity  of  the 
costume.  The  whole  attitude  of  the  body  in  repose 
is  perfect  in  its  truth  and  naturalness;  but  our 
admiration  changes  and  quickens  to  emotion  when 
we  raise  our  eyes  to  the  level  of  the  face  of  this 
''good  little  mother,"  a  bony,  irregular  face,  almost 
ugly,  but  so  gentle,  so  kind,  so  touchingly  illumined 
by  the  tender  caress  in  the  eyes  as  they  rest  upon 
the  adored  son  in  the  course  of  painting  her. 
Those  emaciated  features,  which  not  even  the 
crown  of  blonde  hair  is  able  to  rejuvenate,  are 
unmistakably   those   of  a   mother;    if  we   had   not 


56         BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

known,  we  should  inevitably  have  divined  it;  no 
one  but  a  son,  and  a  great  artist  as  well,  could 
have  crowned  the  brow  of  a  woman  with  such  an 
aureole  of  gentleness  and  love. 

Bastien-Lepage,  whom  those  who  envied  him 
affected  to  regard  as  dedicated  wholly  to  the 
reproduction  of  rustic  uncouthness,  had  no  equal 
in  catching  the  radiance  of  feminine  charms,  even 
in  their  subtlest  manifestations.  No  one  was  more 
skilled  than  he  in  seizing  and  recording  the  one 
particular  trait,  often  elusive  and  intangible,  which 
characterizes  a  woman  and  makes  her  beautiful. 
What  delicious  portraits  of  women  we  owe  to 
him!  Where  could  we  meet  with  a  more  smiling 
image  than  that  of  Mme.  Godillot,  radiant  and 
seductive,  a  rosy  vision  in  the  black  velvet  of  her 
gown,  relieved  by  the  brilliant  sheen  of  her  white 
satin  corsage!  And  what  studied  and  elaborate 
art  was  expended  on  the  Portrait  of  Mme.  Klotz, 
whose  magnificent  brunette  beauty  emerges  like 
a  gorgeous  lily  from  the  surrounding  whiteness  of 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        57 

her  scarf,  that  is  all  the  more  dazzlingly  white  by 
contrast  with  her  sombre  robe!  And  still  again, 
there  is  the  Portrait  of  Mme.  Juliette  Drouet, 
another  beautiful  and  noble  specimen  of  portraiture. 
And  how  marvellously  Bastien-Lepage  could  detect 
the  hidden  soul  lurking  in  the  inmost  recesses  of 
his  models  and  reveal  it  behind  the  transparent 
screen  of  their  eyes!  If  Bastien-Lepage  had  not 
achieved  eternal  glory  as  an  interpreter  of  rural 
life,  he  would  still  have  remained  celebrated  as  a 
portrait  painter. 

But  to  Bastien-Lepage  portrait  painting  was 
only  a  side  issue,  a  form  of  relaxation  between 
two  landscapes;  his  predilection,  his  one  object  in 
life,  so  to  speak,  was  to  return  constantly  to  his 
peasants,   his  scenes  of  toil,  his  fields  of  Lorraine. 

After  his  return  from  England  he  passed  some 
months  at  Damvillers,  when  an  impulse  seized 
him  to  visit  Italy,  to  which  the  verdict  of  a  prej- 
udiced committee  had  once  upon  a  time  barred 
his  way.     He  proceeded  straight  to  Venice,  and  it 


58        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

may  as  well  be  acknowledged  at  once,  Venetian 
art  left  him  cold,  if  not  indifferent.  He  had  never 
in  the  least  understood  any  of  the  big  *'set  pieces," 
and  in  spite  of  all  the  art  of  Veronese  and  Titian, 
in  spite  of  their  dazzling  flare  of  colour,  he  never 
succeeded  in  understanding  their  sumptuous  alle- 
gories or  in  accepting  the  fantastic  interpretation 
of  nature  which  the  Venetians  allowed  themselves. 
He  returned  to  Damvillers,  profoundly  disillusioned 
and  more  than  ever  convinced  that  nature  alone, 
such  as  he  saw  it,  was  deserving  of  the  attention 
of  the  true  artist.  There  would  be  no  object  in 
discussing  here  how  rightly  or  how  ill  founded 
such  an  opinion  was;  we  note  it  only  to  indicate 
once  more  the  absolute  independence  of  the  painter, 
his  fixed  determination  never  to  imitate  anyone. 

And,  beyond  question,  there  is  no  resemblance 
to  any  other  painter  in  that  curious  and  remarkable 
picture  known  as  Jeanne  d'Arc  listening  to  the 
Voices.  Lorraine  in  heart  and  soul,  Bastien-Lepage 
desired  to  pay  his  tribute,   as  so  many  had  done 


PLATE  VII.  — THE    LITTLE   CHIMNEY-SWEEP 
(Collection  of  E.  Bastien- Lepage) 

This  attractive  picture,  full  of  charm  and  vigour,  belongs  to  the 
closing  years  of  the  artist's  life,  at  the  time  when  he  was  enjoying 
the  flood  tide  of  his  talent.  How  much  force  and  truth  there  is  in 
this  picture  of  the  little  chimney-sweep,  and  what  graceful  nimble- 
ness  in  the  movements  of  the  cats  that  he  is  watching  at  play. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         6i 

before  him,  to  the  glorious  heroine  who,  like  him, 
had  come  from  the  banks  of  the  Meuse.     And  he 
wished  also  to  restore  her  to  her  natural  setting, 
with    the    greatest    degree    of    historic     accuracy. 
Consequently  it  is  in  a  Lorraine  garden  surround- 
ing a  Lorraine  cottage   that    he  shows  us  Jeanne, 
the  shepherdess;   around  her  are  the  familiar  garden 
utensils   such   as   peasants   use   to-day  just   as  they 
did  in  the    fifteenth    century.     She  is  standing  in 
an  inspired  and  attentive  attitude,  which  gives  to 
her  whole  countenance  that  forceful  character  which 
Bastien-Lepage  imprints  upon  all  his  compatriots. 
For  he  wished   to  make  her,  in  a  certain  sense,  a 
composite    type    of    the    women    of    the    Lorraine 
race,   such  as  Theuriet  has  described:     **The  fore- 
head  low   but   intelHgent,    the   eyes   with   drooping 
lids  that  half  conceal  the  somewhat  sullen  glance; 
the   bones  prominent  in   cheek   and  jaw,   the   chin 
square,    indicative    of     an    opinionated    race;    the 
mouth  large,  with  half  parted  lips,  through  which 
one     perceives     the     passage     of    the     deep-drawn 


62         BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

breath."  This  head  is  always  the  same;  under 
all  the  variations  in  physiognomy  we  always 
meet  with  the  same  local  type:  it  is  the  head  of 
the  woman  in  Hay -making  and  of  the  Women 
gathering  Potatoes,  and  it  is  also  that  of  the 
"good  little  mother,"  so  fundamentally  and  em- 
phatically representative  of  Lorraine. 

Nevertheless  Jeanne  d'Arc  listening  to  the 
Voices  was  rather  badly  received  by  the  critics. 
Without  disputing  the  originality  and  vigour  of 
the  inspired  shepherdess,  they  reproached  the  artist 
for  the  presence  of  the  traditional  saints,  Bastien- 
Lepage  had  indicated  these  under  the  form  of 
luminous  vapour,  radiating  through  the  branches 
overhanging  the  garden:  St.  Michael  in  the  golden 
armour  of  a  knight  of  the  fifteenth  century,  St. 
Margaret  and  St.  Catherine  as  phantoms  so  diaph- 
anous as  to  be  hardly  perceptible.  The  idealists 
complained  that  the  picture  was  lacking  in  ideal- 
ism; the  realists  were  somewhat  disconcerted  to 
find    the    apparitions    there    at    all.     It    must    be 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        63 

acknowledged  that  Bastien-Lepage  ceases  to  be 
himself  the  moment  that  he  ventures  to  attempt 
the  supernatural  or  even  allegory  pure  and  simple. 
He  feels  that  he  is  no  longer  on  familiar  ground, 
he  hesitates,  he  fumbles,  and  the  harmony  of  the 
work  suffers  in  consequence.  Nevertheless,  in  spite 
of  this  undeniable  defect,  the  face  of  Jeanne  d'Arc 
will  be  remembered  as  a  piece  of  powerful  painting 
and  genuine  inspiration. 

At  all  events,  Bastien-Lepage  was  keenly  aware 
of  the  half-way  nature  of  his  success,  and  from 
that  day  renounced  forever  the  element  of  the 
marvellous  and  confined  himself  to  that  concrete 
and  tangible  poetry  which  emanates  from  the  earth. 

Some  little  time  after  his  Jeanne  d'Arc,  he 
produced  The  Mendicant,  veteran  knight  of  the 
road,  whose  lazy  life  is  passed  in  going  from  door 
to  door,  asking  charity  and  compelling  it  if  need 
be;  suspicious  looking  old  tramp,  perhaps  a  thief 
as  well,  who  inspires  fear  and  whose  sack  is  often 
filled  through  unwillingness  to  provoke  him.     The 


64         BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

artist  has  pictured  him  with  a  stout  stick  in  his 
hand,  stowing  away  the  sHce  of  bread  which  a 
pretty  sUp  of  a  girl  in  a  blue  apron  has  just 
given  him.  This  fine  and  vigorous  canvas  scored 
almost  as  much  of  a  success,  at  the  Salon  of  1881, 
as  the  admirable  Portrait  of  Albert  Wolff,  a  critic 
on  the  Figaro  and  close  personal  friend  of  the 
artist. 

In  1882  he  won  a  further  success  with  his 
superb  Father  Jacques,  a  masterly  study  of  the 
Lorraine  peasant,  and  with  his  charming  Portrait 
of  Mme.  W. 

In  1883  came  Love  in  a  Village,  one  of  his 
most  popular  canvases,  in  which  he  depicted  with 
charming  naturalness  the  uncomplicated  and  naive 
courtship  of  rustic  lovers.  Here  are  a  pair  who 
are  untroubled  by  curious  glances;  the  nearer 
houses  of  the  village  are  quite  close  by.  Bending 
slightly  towards  his  sweetheart,  the  man  is  mur- 
muring his  avowals  in  her  ear,  in  a  voice  that,  we 
suspect,    is    by    no    means    steady.     Strapping    fel- 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        65 

low  that  he  is,  he  evidently  lacks  the  habit  of 
making  pretty  speeches;  we  can  see  that  from 
the  embarrassed  air  with  which  he  twists  his 
fingers.  His  words,  however,  are  plainly  not  lack- 
ing in  eloquence,  for  the  girl,  type  of  buxom 
young  womanhood  that  we  have  already  learned 
to  know,  has  bent  her  head  and,  although  her 
back  is  turned,  we  are  sure  that  she  is  blushing 
as  she  listens  to  his  declaration.  A  special  atmos- 
phere emanates  from  this  picture,  as  well  as  that 
profound  spirit  of  poetry  which  is  inseparable 
from  the  eternal  song  of  love. 

HIS   PREMATURE    END 

At  this  period  Bastien-Lepage  had  already 
begun  to  incur  the  first  attacks  of  the  disease 
which  was  destined  so  soon  to  end  his  days.  He 
suffered  violent  pains  in  the  kidneys.  He  became 
melancholy,  nervous,  irritable;  he  shut  himself  up 
in  his  studio  in  the  Rue  Legendre,  and  even  his 
best  friends  could  not  gain  admittance.     The  doc- 


66        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

tors  who  were  called  in  recognized  the  gravity  of 
his  illness  and  ordered  energetic  treatment  and 
a  change  of  air.  The  poor  artist  reconciled  him- 
self to  go  for  a  time  to  Brittany,  and  his  choice 
fell  on  Concarneau.  The  keen  sea  air  produced 
a  temporary  betterment,  and  he  took  advantage 
of  it  to  work,  for  he  could  not  resign  himself  to 
lay  aside  his  palette  and  brushes.  He  spent  entire 
days  in  a  boat  and,  in  spite  of  his  sufferings, 
executed  several  landscapes  of  rare  beauty.  But 
his  condition,  instead  of  improving,  took  a  turn 
for  the  worse.  "The  digestive  tube,"  he  wrote 
to  Theuriet,  **is  always  kicking  up  a  row!"  The 
pain  in  the  kidneys  and  bowels  became  at  this 
time  so  violent  that  he  was  forced  to  decide  to 
return  to  Paris,  in  order  to  consult  the  men  of 
science  once  again. 

This  time,  when  Dr.  Potain  examined  him,  he 
could  no  longer  deceive  himself  as  to  the  artist's 
fate;  he  saw  that  his  patient  was  irremediably 
condemned.      However,    a     sojourn    in    a    milder 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        67 

climate  might  prolong  his  life  for  a  few  months; 
so  he  advised  Algeria.  The  prospect  of  the  journey, 
the  desire  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  this  land 
of  sunshine  which  Delacroix,  Decamps,  and  Fro- 
mentin  had  taught  him  to  love,  for  a  few  days 
gave  a  false  strength  to  the  poor  sufferer,  which 
produced  a  deceptive  appearance  of  renewed  health 
and  even  deceived  the  artist  himself.  Besides,  Mme. 
Bastien-Lepage,  the  **  good  little  mother,"  was  to 
accompany  him,  and  this  unselfish  and  tender  devo- 
tion warmed  his  heart.  The  poor  woman  forced 
back  her  tears  in  order  to  smile  upon  the  unfortu- 
nate son  whom  she  knew  to  be  doomed.  And  so 
the  pitiful  pair  set  forth  for  the  land  of  sunshine, 
she  consumed  with  grief,  and  he  almost  joyous  in 
the  hope  of  a  speedy  cure. 

His  first  letters  to  his  friends  bore  the  imprint 
of  good  spirits;  Algeria  aroused  his  enthusiasm 
by  its  clear  and  vibrant  colours;  his  disease  de- 
clared a  brief  truce  and  he  began  to  form  proj- 
ects.     The    thought    of   dying    had    not    yet    even 


68        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

vaguely  occurred  to  him,  though,  for  that  matter, 
he  had  no  fear  of  death.  The  previous  year  he 
had  painted  Gambetta  on  his  Death-bed;  and 
his  frequent  visits  to  Ville-d'Avray  led  him  to 
discuss  the  inevitable  end  of  life.  "I  am  not 
afraid  of  death,"  he  said,  "dying  is  nothing, 
—  the  important  thing  is  to  survive  oneself, 
and  who  can  be  sure  of  establishing  a  claim 
upon  posterity?  But  there!  I  am  talking  non- 
sense! So  long  as  our  work  is  true,  nothing  else 
matters." 

But  before  long  the  ravages  of  the  disease  be- 
gan to  make  headway;  the  kidneys  no  longer 
performed  their  function,  and  he  suffered  atrocious 
agonies  which  stretched  him  for  days  at  a  time 
on  his  back.  Even  the  burning  heat  of  the  African 
sun  no  longer  had  strength  enough  to  animate  his 
shattered  physique;  the  brush,  which  the  artist 
from  time  to  time  still  attempted  to  take  up, 
fell  from  between  his  fingers.  He,  Bastien-Lepage, 
painter  of  the  soil,  found  himself  unable  to  transfer 


PLATE   VIII.  — THE  ARTIST'S   UNCLE 

(  Museum  at  Verdun ) 

Here  is  still  another  kindly  and  vigorous  face  from  Lorraine, 
forcefully  modelled,  with  salient  jaw  bones,  betraying  the  obstinacy 
of  the  race.  An  air  of  good  nature  softens  the  energy  of  this  face, 
and  the  eyes  sparkle  with  intelligence.  This  portrait  is  treated  in  a 
free-handed  manner,  with  unfaltering  strokes,  and  its  colouring  i3 
especially  excellent. 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         71 

to  canvas  the  enchantment  of  that  land  of  fairy- 
tale! And  he  poured  forth  his  distress  in  long 
and  poignant  letters,  in  which  could  be  read  in 
every  line  the  loss  of  hope  and  the  sure  prevision 
of  the  now  inevitable  end. 

As  no  amelioration  took  place,  Bastien-Lepage 
made  the  return  journey  to  Paris  towards  the  end 
of  May,  1884.  He  went  back  to  his  studio  in 
the  Rue  Legendre,  where  he  had  formerly  passed 
such  happy  hours  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  a 
talent  at  its  zenith  and  a  constitution  apparently 
able  to  defy  all  tests.  Now,  however,  he  dragged 
around  a  dying  body,  with  disease  gnawing  at  his 
vitals.  He  could  no  longer  sleep  without  the  aid 
of  powerful  doses  of  morphine.  The  winter-time 
increased  his  suffering;  his  strength  rapidly  failed 
him;  and,  on  the  tenth  of  December,  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  he  drew  his  last  breath,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-six  years. 

As  long  as  he  could  hold  a  brush,  Bastien- 
Lepage  continued  to  work,  in  spite  of  the  sufferings 


72        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

which  racked  him.  During  the  year  preceding  his 
death,  while  he  was  already  experiencing  fright- 
ful tortures,  he  painted  The  Woman  making  Lye 
and  The  Little  Chimney-sweep,  the  latter  of 
which  is  here  reproduced.  This  admirable  canvas 
is  to  be  seen  now  at  the  studio  of  the  painter's 
brother  at  Neuilly,  and  forms  part  of  the  legacy 
which  M.  Emile  Bastien-Lepage  intends  to  be- 
queath to  the  Louvre.  It  has  never  been  shown  at 
any  Salon,  and  for  that  matter  there  are  a  good 
many  other  paintings  and  portraits  which  have 
never  been  exhibited  in  public  and  which  are  not 
for  that  reason  any  the  less  remarkable.  We  may 
cite  at  random:  The  Portrait  of  M.  E.  Bastien- 
Lepage,  The  Prince  of  Wales,  Mme.  Juliette 
Drouet,  A  Little  Girl  going  to  School,  The  Little 
Pedler  asleep.  The  Vintage,  No  Help!  The  Thames 
at  London,  etc. 

The  very  year  of  his  death,  shortly  before  his 
departure  for  Algeria,  Bastien-Lepage  executed  a 
delicious  little  canvas  entitled  The  Forge,  in  which 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        73 

the  artist  expended  a  surprising  amount  of  talent 
and  skill,  and  which  enables  us  to  realize  what 
extraordinary  heights  his  ever  progressive  genius 
might  have  attained,  but  for  the  blind  and  brutal 
cruelty  of  Destiny. 

His  death  was  a  time  of  mourning  for  the 
arts;  the  regrets  which  he  left  behind  him  were 
unanimous.  Even  those  who  had  been  opposed 
to  his  aesthetic  creed  paid  homage  to  his  great 
conscientiousness  as  an  artist  and  his  noble  char- 
acter as  a  man. 

During  March  and  April,  1885,  only  a  few 
months  after  his  death,  all  literary  and  artistic 
Paris  flocked  to  the  Hotel  de  Chimay,  an  adjunct 
to  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  where  a  posthumous 
exhibition  of  his  works  had  been  organized. 

At  this  exhibition  the  entire  body  of  his  works 
had  been  brought  together.  The  museums  had 
loaned  the  canvases  which  they  possessed  and 
the  private  collectors  had  done  their  share  towards 
the  glorification  of  the  artist   by  entrusting  to  the 


74        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

organizers  a  goodly  number  of  paintings  and  por- 
traits which  had  never  figured  in  any  of  the 
Salons. 

Thus  it  was  made  possible  to  comprehend  at 
a  single  glance  the  life-work  of  this  remarkable 
artist  and  to  appreciate  the  distance  he  had  trav- 
ersed, the  progress  he  had  made  during  his  brief 
existence,  and  the  brilliant  prospects  that  were 
destroyed  by  his  untimely  death. 

From  all  these  numerous  works,  exhibited  side 
by  side,  what  stood  out  most  clearly  was  the  unity 
of  thought  which  had  conceived  them  and  the 
dogged  fidelity  to  principles  which  had  controlled 
their  execution.  At  the  same  time  they  revealed 
the  amazing  adaptability  of  his  talent,  which 
essayed  the  most  diverse  and  conflicting  subjects 
with  the  same  realistic  vigour,  bestowing  even 
upon  his  vaporous  and  delicate  portraits  of  women 
a  touch  which,  while  light,  is  unmistakably  his 
own,  and  in  which  we  recognize  that  noble,  con- 
scientious workmanship,  free  from  all  artifice,  which 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        75 

was  the  distinctive  hall-mark  both  of  his  painting 
and  of  his  character. 

But  the  quality  which  dominates  all  the  rest 
in  the  work  of  Bastien-Lepage,  and  which  emanates 
from  it  like  the  fragrance  which  is  exhaled  by 
certain  precious  essences,  is  his  ardent  and  deep- 
rooted  love  for  his  native  soil.  This  form  of  local 
patriotism,  determined  by  the  boundaries  of  Lor- 
raine, underwent  a  noble  expansion  to  the  point 
of  encircling  the  entire  earth;  for  while  the  painter 
chose  his  models  out  of  the  familiar  landscape  of 
his  childhood's  home,  his  observation  and  his  art 
broke  out  of  the  bounds  of  this  special  setting 
and  embraced  rustic  humanity  throughout  France 
and  even  beyond.  His  peasants  are  unmistakably 
from  the  banks  of  the  Meuse  in  type  and  in  cus- 
toms, but  they  are  from  the  world  at  large  in 
gesture  and  in  philosophy  of  life.  Whether  he 
comes  from  the  North  or  from  the  South,  the 
tiller  of  the  soil  wages  the  same  conflict  with 
ungrateful    furrows,    the    spade     and     the    plough 


76        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

imprint  the  same  calluses  on  his  bony  hands, 
the  sun  browns  his  energetic  and  stubborn  features 
to  the  same  deep  tan.  It  is  in  this  respect  that 
the  art  of  Bastien-Lepage  assumes  a  higher  sig- 
nificance; like  Millet,  it  is  not  a  peasant  whom  he 
paints,  but  the  peasant,  forever  unchanging  in 
spite  of  latitude.  But  if  his  work  has  attained 
this  higher  eminence  of  generalization,  it  is  pre- 
cisely for  the  reason  that  the  artist's  watchful 
eye  has  succeeded  in  discovering,  in  the  life  of 
the  peasantry,  that  state  of  mind  which  is  com- 
mon to  them  all,  that  immutable  gesture  which 
they  have  always  made  and  always  will  make. 
He  has  understood  and  translated  with  inspired 
eloquence  their  rugged  strength,  their  naive  awk- 
wardness, their  simple  intelligence. 

Another  glorious  distinction  of  Bastien-Lepage 
was  that  he  loved  the  fields  as  well  as  he  loved  the 
peasants.  Not  fields  drowned  beneath  melancholy 
shadow  and  pallid  shifting  light,  but  fields  bathed 
in   sunshine,   until  the  golden  tassels  of  the   grain 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE         77 

crackle  like  sparks  under  the  fire  of  the  midday 
sun.  Always  and  everywhere  he  sought  for  light, 
and  in  the  midst  of  it  his  modest  protagonists  of 
rustic  life  stand  out  in  all  their  vigour. 

It  would  be  easy  to  cite,  among  our  best  con- 
temporary painters,  a  considerable  number  of  artists 
who  are  brilliantly  continuing  the  tradition  left 
by  Bastien-Lepage  and  emulating  his  predilection 
for  the  luminous  brilliance  of  the  open  air.  How 
often,  in  the  presence  of  a  canvas  by  Lhermitte, 
our  thoughts  go  back  to  the  painter  of  Lorraine, 
whose  vigorous  execution  and  joyous  colouring 
seem  to  have  been  reincarnated!  Art  is  indebted 
to  Bastien-Lepage  for  having  reinstated  nature 
in  all  her  literal  truth  by  proving  that,  in  order 
to  be  beautiful,  she  has  no  need  of  artificial  and 
superfluous  adornment. 

Lorraine,  out  of  gratitude,  wished  to  perpet- 
uate the  memory  of  this  glorious  son  of  the  Meuse, 
who  had  so  eloquently  celebrated  the  vitality  and 
poetry   of  his   natal    earth.     It   was   at    Damvillers 


78        BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

itself  that  it  was  decided  to  raise  a  monument  to 
the  great  painter;  and  around  its  pedestal  there 
were  gathered  the  **good  little  mother,"  all  in 
tears,  the  assembled  population  of  the  village 
and  the  whole  region  round  about,  and  even  the 
Government  took  part  in  the  pious  ceremony 
by  sending  as  its  representative  M.  Gustave 
Larroumet,  director  of  the  Beaux-Arts.  This 
eloquent  art  critic  brought  as  a  tribute  to  the 
departed  painter  the  ofBcial  seal  of  immortal- 
ity, and  he  pronounced  it  in  terms  vibrant  with 
emotion. 

"At  the  moment,"  he  said,  **when  ordinarily 
the  best  of  artists  have  done  no  more  than  to 
give  indications  of  their  originality  and  when 
ripening  years  alone  begin  to  keep  the  promises 
of  youth,  Jules  Bastien-Lepage  died,  leaving  mas- 
terpieces behind  him,  besides  having  liberated  an 
artistic  formula  from  the  tendencies  and  exaggera- 
tions which  hampered  it,  and  indicated  to  the  art 
of  painting  a  new  pathway  along  which  his  young 


BASTIEN-LEPAGE        79 

heirs  are  advancing  with  an  assured  step.  He 
loved  nature  and  truth;  he  loved  his  own  people, 
and  no  one  ever  lived  who  was  surrounded  with 
a  greater  degree  of  affection;  he  inspired  faithful 
friendships  which  he  himself  enjoyed  to  the  full; 
and  those  whom  he  left  behind  soothe  their  heart- 
ache with  the  balm  of  tender  memories;  he  prac- 
tised his  art  without  ever  making  sacrifice  to 
passing  fashion  or  sordid  profit;  there  was  no 
place  in  his  mind  or  in  his  heart  for  any  other 
than  noble  and  generous  thoughts.  Let  us  com- 
fort ourselves,  therefore,  for  what  his  death  has 
taken  from  us  by  the  thought  of  what  his  life  has 
left  to  us,  and  let  us  assign  him  his  place  in  the 
ranks  of  the  younger  master  painters  who  have 
been  mown  down  in  full  flower,  close  beside  that 
of  Gericault  and  of  Henri  Regnault." 

In  his  admirable  biographic  and  critical  study 
of  Bastien-Lepage,  whose  personal  friend  he  had 
been,  M.  L.  de  Fourcaud,  by  way  of  conclusion, 
bids  him  this  touching  farewell: 


8o  BASTIEN-LEPAGE 

"Poor  Bastien-Lepage,  snatched  away  one  win- 
ter's night,  at  thirty-six  years  of  age,  in  the  fairest 
flowering  of  his  bright  promise,  in  the  richest 
expansion  of  his  personaUty;  may  each  returning 
month  of  May  bring  at  least  an  abundance  of 
blossoms  to  the  apple  tree  beside  his  grave!  For 
the  blossoms  of  the  apple  were  always,  in  his  eyes, 
so  fair  a  sight!'* 

To-day  he  sleeps  forever  in  a  corner  of  that 
Lorraine  land  which  he  loved  so  dearly,  and  per- 
haps in  the  cemetery  of  his  native  village  his 
shade  can  still  hear  the  familiar  accents  of  his 
native  dialect.  The  great  painter  of  Lorraine 
could  never  have  slept  his  eternal  sleep  in  any 
other  soil  than  that. 

Painter  of  flowers,  painter  of  nature,  painter 
of  the  earth  which  is  forever  deathless  and  forever 
renewed,  Bastien-Lepage  has  chosen  that  better  part; 
his  work  will  live  as  long  as  these,  his  models,  and 
will  go  down  through  the  centuries  in  all  the 
splendour  of  increasing  beauty  and  eternal  youth. 


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